Sermon

The Delight Of Your Eyes - Greg Gay 4-19-07

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. Tonight I walk to use Ezekiel chapter 24 as a basis from which

    Ezekiel 24 chapter mention

  2. to begin the sermon Ezekiel chapter 24, introduces us to the

    Ezekiel 24 chapter mention

  3. time when Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah and

  4. Daniel at the time of the Babylonian exile while Jeremiah

  5. Was ministering in Judah and Daniel was serving in the court

  6. of King Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel was preaching to the

  7. Jewish captives in Babylon. Sometimes when we look at the

  8. writers of the Bible, the prophets, the apostles, those

  9. individuals who become very well known to us.

  10. Sometimes we lose sight that they were human beings also.

  11. Yes, they were inspired by the Lord to do great things but they

  12. also were just folks you know, they were people.

  13. They were people that had to get up.

  14. Day and dedicate themselves to the task at hand of serving the

  15. lord and being faithful to him. So, just like all of us gathered

  16. here, the prophets of old had times of sadness, times of

  17. Happiness. They had times when they were

  18. tired times when they were sick times, when everything was going

  19. great for them and times when they were in the depths of

  20. Despair times, when they were doing things, Things right

  21. times. When they made mistakes, all of

  22. the Old Testament, people that we're familiar with were people.

  23. Let's remember that. Just like us the Apostle, Peter

  24. tells us by inspiration how these men of old were able to

  25. speak on God's behalf. Second, Peter 1, verse 21 says,

  26. for the prophecy came not in Old Time by the will of man, but

  27. holy men of God, spake. As they were moved by the Holy

  28. Ghost, the word moved here. I understand is a sailing terms.

  29. And the concept there is if you raise the sail on a vessel and

  30. the wind is blowing that sale is going to meet the wind and the

  31. wind is going to move that vessel along the vessel cannot

  32. help but be moved. Jeremiah the prophet, you know,

  33. tried for a while to say I just had all this I can take he was

  34. going to just not prophesy anymore and he says Thy Word was

  35. like a fire shut up in my bones. I Tried to forbear, but I could

  36. not, they just had to speak. Whenever God gave them those

  37. messages to say. Now, it would be rather Fun by

  38. dare use that word to be a prophet upon occasions.

  39. It would be nice to be able to stand up and deliver great

  40. truths, that people didn't know, or to be able to foretell

  41. wonderful events. But what would it be like to to

  42. be told by the Lord to go appear before a king?

  43. And to look that King in the eye and say the Lord?

  44. God Of Heaven says, you're about to die.

  45. That wouldn't be too much fun. Wasn't always real Pleasant to

  46. be a prophet, but they still had to go and they still had to say

  47. the things that were given to them to say the nearest.

  48. I come to that, you know, these are personality facets.

  49. I've tried to study personality Through The Years, thinking that

  50. the better, I understand me, the better.

  51. I'll be able to cope with things that I encounter in life.

  52. And so, anytime a personality test is available to me.

  53. I take Take that everyone I've ever taken.

  54. Says that I should be in a rubber room somewhere and so

  55. sometimes I've had people ask me, you have trouble holding a

  56. job. Well no I've really not had

  57. trouble holding a job. Well, do you have trouble

  58. getting along at home? Well, you know, no more than

  59. usual, I wouldn't think and and you you have these problems and

  60. you and I finally say what are you saying?

  61. Well with your personality is how it starts and I And I

  62. usually come back. Look, if it wasn't for my

  63. relationship with Jesus Christ. I would be in a rubber room

  64. somewhere and yes, I would have trouble holding a job.

  65. And yes, I would not even begin to be, who I should be in my

  66. home and That's what I always look to.

  67. So, personality issues, I try to understand for me because I

  68. really need stuff like that. And so, when somebody says, you

  69. know, I just felt like I had to say something to somebody.

  70. I understand that. That's a facet of my personality

  71. given something that I think needs to be fixed.

  72. I always think I'm the fixer. And sometimes, even among total

  73. strangers, I've been known to say, excuse me, if you would

  74. just. And whenever I do that, my sweet

  75. wife. Oh, she's just so embarrassed

  76. and humiliated and said, oh, can't you just keep your mouth

  77. still? And it's like no, I'm inspired.

  78. Well, I'm not but that's the way it feels.

  79. That's the way it feels. I just have to say something so

  80. it would appear. Well, Ezekiel was a married,

  81. man. And he was very happily married,

  82. but let's look at what happened to him.

  83. Is he, he'll 24 verse 15 and this is where God uses something

  84. that was about to happen. Anyway.

  85. For his glory. The word of the Lord came unto

  86. me is he Keel, says saying, son of man, behold I take away from

  87. Thee, the desires of thine eyes with a stroke yet.

  88. Neither shalt thou more nor weep neither shall thy tears, run

  89. down forbear to cry. Make no mourning for the dead by

  90. the tire Vine head upon the and put on my shoes upon my feet and

  91. cover not by lips and he came out the bread of man.

  92. Another translation says, on this particular passage with one

  93. blow. I am about to take away from

  94. you, the Delight of your eyes. You see Ezekiel was a married,

  95. man. In addition, to be a prophet of

  96. God, he was a married man that loved his wife very much.

  97. And verse 18 says, so I spoken to the people in the morning and

  98. at even my wife died and I did in the morning as I was

  99. commanded. Now, how much fun is it to be a

  100. prophet? Even in the midst of what was

  101. going to happen in life, God wanted him to give a special

  102. message. Now, we are given here the

  103. customary pattern of morning in ezekiel's day when it says, bind

  104. the tire of thine head upon thee, that's referring.

  105. I would, I would, I would pretty much understand that.

  106. It's a turban, he was normally a person that wore a type of a

  107. turbine and keep your shoes on. Keep your sandals on your feet,

  108. don't cover the lower part of your face, so that was customary

  109. to do when morning was to cover the law.

  110. Were part of their face, even for men, and do not eat the

  111. customary food of those who are morning.

  112. So there were special foods that they ate during that period of

  113. time. And Ezekiel was told, don't you

  114. do that? And he was also told, don't you

  115. cry, Don't You Weep? Don't you shed any tears?

  116. You ever tried to not cry? When you really needed to cry.

  117. I am 54 years old. I still remember some of my

  118. father's spankings of me. My daddy did not believe in

  119. light little spats. He really felt like I should

  120. understand, I was being punished.

  121. And so it was real and it was genuine for me to cry.

  122. Now, some kids had Daddy's and Mama's that really didn't hurt

  123. them and so they would they would know how to act like they

  124. were crying. So they'd quit mine was no act.

  125. I mean I was sobbing hard. Daddy would handle me doing that

  126. for all. I don't know.

  127. Five seconds. and then he'd say, one word, hush Have you ever

  128. been there? Oh, that's the most awful

  129. feeling. I remember that.

  130. From well over 40 years ago. I remember how that felt.

  131. Ezekiel was told yes she's the Delight of your eyes, don't you

  132. even cry? When is our faith?

  133. Really faith. You know, when everything's

  134. great in life. We rock along and it's just it's

  135. just fun to serve the Lord. But you let adversity strike.

  136. when things happen in our lives that we don't begin to

  137. understand, that is when Faith really is what we're basing our

  138. life on That's what Ezekiel was doing.

  139. He wanted to cry, he wanted to mourn.

  140. He wanted to do all of those customary things that anyone

  141. would want to do. But look at his faith, that was

  142. obedient. I spake unto the people in the

  143. morning. I did just what I normally did

  144. and then in that evening, my wife died and I did as I was

  145. commanded. What an amazing man.

  146. Ezekiel Wallace. Here's what happened.

  147. God's people were just evil, their lives were not pure

  148. another passage in Ezekiel verses 13 and 14 of chapter 24.

  149. They're the Bible says, and I filthiness is lewdness because

  150. I've purged the year I've tried to cleanse, you, you were not

  151. purged. Thou shalt not be purged from by

  152. filthiness any mortal. I've caused my Fury to rest upon

  153. the I, the Lord have spoken it. It shall come to pass.

  154. I will do it. I will not go back.

  155. Neither will I spare neither. I Repent.

  156. According to thy ways and according to thy doing shall

  157. they judge thee, saith the Lord. God.

  158. You see because their lives were increasingly evil God decided to

  159. strike them in the area where they were the most delighted.

  160. That which they had the greatest Delight in was in the temple in

  161. Jerusalem. That was the Delight of their

  162. eyes and verse 21 of Ezekiel 24. So speaking of a house of

  163. Israel, thus saith the Lord God behold, I will profane My

  164. Sanctuary the Excellency of your strength of Desire, the Delight

  165. of your eyes and that which your soul pitieth or the object of

  166. your affection, and your sons and your daughters.

  167. Whom you've left shall fall by the sword.

  168. You see the people held Jerusalem and in In particular

  169. the temple in high regard, but their individual lives were not

  170. in keeping with God's rules. Here's what God Said, to

  171. Jeremiah in, Jeremiah chapter 7, beginning with verse 8 behold,

    Jeremiah 7 chapter mention

  172. you trusted lying Words that cannot profit will you steal

  173. murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and burn incense

  174. unto Baal and walk after other gods who, you know, now Tim come

  175. and stand with their be in this house, which is called, by my

  176. name and say we are delivered to do.

  177. All these Abominations is this house, which is called, by my

  178. name become a den of robbers in your eyes behold.

  179. Even I have seen it. Saith the Lord.

  180. That language is reminiscent of when Jesus cleansed the Temple

  181. of the money changers. You know, you've made my

  182. father's house a den of Thieves. Well, that is reminiscent of

  183. what Jeremiah was saying, I have delivered you to do what to do.

  184. All of these evil things, stealing murdering committing

  185. adultery and swearing falsely and burning incense unto Idols

  186. rocking after other gods. I've delivered you for that.

  187. And whenever the Bible says, behold even I have I've seen it

  188. that last phrase simply means I have been watching you.

  189. Motors, always watching. We can't get away from the

  190. Lord's ability to see us and know us from the heart out.

  191. You see, Israel was pretending as long as they just appeared in

  192. the temple, everything would be fine, but God was only in the

  193. temple. It's kind of like folks thinking

  194. God is only in the church building when we come together

  195. for worship. So we can go outside of the

  196. building and be what we want and do what we want.

  197. But as long as we come in and pretend Things.

  198. Okay, but everything's okay. That's when God said to Israel.

  199. I've been watching. I've been seeing you, you see

  200. God's people were maintaining the outward symbols of religion,

  201. but they themselves were not in any way religious and God got

  202. tired of that. And he decided to make public

  203. spectacles of them. Hence, their captivity by God,

  204. taking away from them, their beloved Temple, and possession

  205. of the city of Jerusalem. He revealed them for what they

  206. really were, evil individuals, pretending to be religious.

  207. Now, remember those things that are written aforetime were

  208. written for our learning and admonition?

  209. And so when we look back at things like this, we need to ask

  210. ourselves and say is it possible for us to follow in that path?

  211. And I'm afraid the answer is yes, it's very possible for us

  212. to do that and the tragedy is, it is possible for us to do any

  213. sin. That's in the Bible.

  214. It is possible for us to do that and just as sure as we look at

  215. Warren and say, well, I will never ever do that one.

  216. You know what, we've just done, we just lifted ourselves up with

  217. ride and there's another one that gets us, we are capable of

  218. every saying and so when we look at Israel of all of them, say,

  219. well, we would not do that. Well, we need to be very careful

  220. with that because we could be tempted in those areas as well.

  221. You see, I think it's possible to maintain outward symbols of

  222. religion, but not be religious. Yes, and the outward symbols of

  223. our religion, the Bible's religion, the Lord's Church

  224. includes worship Plan of Salvation.

  225. How we how we behave ourselves among others, how we appear, and

  226. all of these things are essential and necessary outward,

  227. observable things. You know, when we observe the

  228. Lord's Supper, we are showing or proclaiming his death till he

  229. comes. So that is a proclamation of

  230. what the Bible says. And so those are things that are

  231. seen outwardly by all. And of course, the obedience

  232. that someone would have to the gospel is intend to intended to

  233. be heard and seen. And of course the way we behave

  234. ourselves, as how we conduct ourselves among all people and

  235. our personal appearance that God also talks about all of these

  236. things are necessary outwardly and they are part of God's will

  237. for us. But if these outward things are

  238. not Actions of sincere and pure hearts.

  239. Then we are like Israel of old. That God was addressing through

  240. Ezekiel. You see, there's more to serving

  241. God than just those public functions that are observable by

  242. others. It is also intended that we are

  243. privately religious as well as publicly religious that we are

  244. as spiritual privately as we are publicly Job chapter 27, Verses

    Job 27:4

  245. 4 & 6, my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter

  246. deceit, my righteousness. I hold fast and will not let it

  247. go. My heart shall not reproach me.

  248. So long as I live job was a man that was determined to do what

  249. was right. Proverbs 12 verse 22, lying lips

    Proverbs 12:22

  250. are an Abomination to the Lord but they that deals truly are

  251. his Delight, proverbs 10 and 9. He that walketh uprightly.

  252. He walketh surely. But he that perverted his ways

  253. shall be known. David said, in Psalm 17 verse 3,

    Psalms 17:3

  254. God has proved Mine Heart that has visited me in the night.

  255. Thou Hast tried be and Shout, find nothing.

  256. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

  257. Now, you know, in normal olden, times most Mischief, it would

  258. appear was done at night and so what David is saying to the Lord

  259. is even if you watch me at night, You'll not find anything

  260. with which to charge me of doing that, which is wrong.

  261. That was David's desire. Now we know he struggled with

  262. that. There are believe his desire is

  263. an appropriate desire for all of us and then he said, I have

  264. resolved that my mouth will not send, and that's a bold

  265. statement, isn't it? He didn't want to sin and what

  266. he said ever, I think that's something that we should do as

  267. well. Second Corinthians 7 verse 1.

    2 Corinthians 7:1

  268. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse

  269. ourselves from all filthiness of the Flesh and spirit perfecting

  270. Holiness in the fear of God. Second Corinthians 7 verse 2.

    2 Corinthians 7:2

  271. Receive us. We've wronged no man.

  272. We corrupted no man. We've defaulted no man.

  273. Patterns of Holiness, Hebrews 13, Verse 18.

    Hebrews 13:18

  274. Pray for us for We Trust, we have a good conscience at all.

  275. Things willing to live. Honestly 1st Thessalonians, 4,

  276. 11, and 12, and that you study to be quiet or to lead a quiet

  277. life and to do your own business and to work with your own hands.

  278. As we commanded you that you may walk honestly toward them that

  279. are without and that you may have like of nothing.

  280. You see the walk honestly towards those that are without

  281. doubt means that our daily life might win, the respect of those

  282. who are strangers to the Lord's Church, our lives would be such

  283. that people would respect the Lord through how we live

  284. remember. Second Corinthians 7.

  285. Verse 1 says that we are to perfect Holiness in the fear of

  286. God. And if our goal is to perfect

  287. Holiness in the fear of God, Then that needs to translate

  288. into some everyday behaviors. That should be part of our

  289. lives. Now.

  290. In the day job that I have one of the areas that I supervise in

  291. the company as an area of safety.

  292. And there's a lot of vehicles delivery vehicles involved in

  293. the company that I happen to work for and so it is company

  294. policy as well as law that before.

  295. A driver is to take one of those Vehicles out on the road.

  296. He has to do a safety check. That's just part of his day.

  297. He just must do that. And the example I use with the

  298. drivers to talk about that when I'm doing training is an example

  299. I got from Bill Ferguson some years ago, one of our preachers

  300. when Bill was living in the Cincinnati Ohio area and Bill

  301. was a driver and he it was a cold morning he said oh it's

  302. going to be cold on the ground this morning.

  303. When I'm checking out my vehicle and I baited him a little bit.

  304. I said well how about just skipping it today Bill?

  305. No, no, no. Can't do that.

  306. I'll come on now and I'll can't do that.

  307. So the conversation kind of went and you see, Bill drives a

  308. school bus. Now, if you're going to put your

  309. kids on bills bus, do you want him to have checked out his

  310. vehicle? Yeah, you do.

  311. You really do and so I tell the drivers working for our company.

  312. You know, you're probably going to meet a few school buses on

  313. the road today. And if those school bus drivers

  314. did everything. They were supposed to do

  315. checking their vehicles out and you haven't done what you're

  316. supposed to do. Then you might hurt somebody.

  317. Somebody's little child. And are you sure you really want

  318. that on you? And so what I asked them to have

  319. is the absolute habit and insistence of checking out their

  320. vehicle every day without fail and when somebody just won't get

  321. that habit, and one of the supervisors calls me and says,

  322. you know, so-and-so just won't check out his vehicle every

  323. morning. What should I do?

  324. Or what have you tried? Well, I've done this.

  325. I've done this. I've done this, I've done this.

  326. What do you suggest? I You fire him or her?

  327. What of course fire them immediately.

  328. Don't let them get back in the vehicle.

  329. Well why not there the driver? No they're not.

  330. Because they don't do the very first things that are essential

  331. to guarantee that they're going to go home in the same condition

  332. in which they came to work that day.

  333. When it's a school boss. With your children.

  334. How is it bitch'll do you want that driver to be in checking

  335. their vehicle? You want them to be very

  336. habitual. Don't, we perfecting Holiness in

  337. the fear of God means these things become habitual for us

  338. habitual. Bad habits.

  339. Take how long about second half? Good habits seem to take a

  340. lifetime, but that's what we need.

  341. We need good habits, and so perfecting Holiness in the fear

  342. of God needs to translate to some everyday behaviors that are

  343. just part of who we are. One of those, is that it means

  344. we will pay our taxes. And yeah I'm going to metal a

  345. little bit here, okay? Just just tolerate me for a

  346. moment tax tax time is in April, you know, every year and we need

  347. to do that. That's from Jesus himself render

  348. to God, that which is God's to Caesar that which is Caesars.

  349. To those rumors in the first few chapters of the book of Romans

  350. were told we need to pay our taxes are tribute.

  351. Those things that are due. And the administration of the

  352. Roman Empire was the most evil Empires far as I know that's

  353. ever existed. And yet the command to God's

  354. people was when you owe taxes, you pay taxes.

  355. Now within the tax structure of our great country, there are as

  356. many interpretations of those tax laws, as there are

  357. individuals who are hired to explain them to us.

  358. I do believe we are entitled as Citizens to take advantage of

  359. every way we can to minimize our tax bill.

  360. That's nothing more than exercising the right of a

  361. citizen and the Apostle Paul proved time and time again it

  362. was fine to exercise the rights of a citizen of a Nation.

  363. However there's a difference between exercising, the rights

  364. to attempt to minimize a tax bill versus defrauding.

  365. The government of that, which is of And so when it's time to file

  366. our taxes, we need to do that and we need to do so legally

  367. when it's time to pay our taxes, we need to do that and we need

  368. to maintain that to the very best of our ability.

  369. Perfecting Holiness in the fear of God means that we will do our

  370. best to pay our bills and that we will do so on time.

  371. Now, the concept of having bills to pay means that we have an

  372. obligation to do what we have agreed to do in repaying those

  373. dads. Now, let's get the exceptions

  374. out of the way. We can encourage debt in the

  375. best of good faith. And then things can happen to

  376. us. All of a sudden, a job that will

  377. secure is gone. And all of a sudden our health

  378. that was wonderful is ruined. Things can happen to us.

  379. We can have unexpected events that caused our financial world

  380. to literally turn upside down. And there can be circumstances

  381. where even the most careful financial planners can find

  382. themselves without the means to pay their bills.

  383. Now, whenever that happens, I believe that's a totally

  384. Different situation from doing our best to incur debt that we

  385. have no intention of ever repay. That's a totally different

  386. thing. Through the years, I've had

  387. individuals ask me questions about a lot of things, including

  388. finances and I guess one of the most difficult situations I ever

  389. encountered was a family that wanted to talk to me about their

  390. finances and I asked about their debts and and I was told that

  391. they had some credit card debt credit card.

  392. Debt can be very, very difficult, very difficult.

  393. It is possible to never pay off certain credit cards.

  394. If the interest rate is high enough and the minimum payment

  395. is low enough, you never you can't live long enough to get

  396. those paid off. And so when the family said they

  397. had some credit card debt, I didn't know what to expect.

  398. So I just said well what kind of debt are we talking about?

  399. Well, at that time, their credit card debt was an excess of

  400. 100,000 dollars and it was on probably 20 or more different

  401. cards. And this family was on a fixed

  402. income. And I said, well, what, what?

  403. What are you doing? Well, every month we get sent

  404. new cards. Okay, and every month we get an

  405. advance on a new card, to make the payments on the old cards.

  406. Okay, and said we're running out of new cards.

  407. I didn't know quite what to do with that except to say, you

  408. have to stop. You know how are you going to

  409. pay this back? I don't know.

  410. Just declare bankruptcy I guess. And I said well you know

  411. bankruptcy is something that the law of the land has allow us.

  412. But as far as I can understand, the obligation of a child of

  413. God, declaring bankruptcy does not eliminate the obligation to

  414. repay. The death.

  415. And I said, so what that means to me is that you have a debt to

  416. pay for the rest of your life, but this nonsense has to stop

  417. and it has to stop now and you have to repent of this, and you

  418. have to come clean with your, with those people that are

  419. sending you credit cards and and not take them.

  420. You can't do this. Well, we might lose our house.

  421. Yes, you bite. And you don't deserve a house.

  422. If that's the case, where we might lose our car, sell it

  423. goodbye. Well, we might, I said, I really

  424. don't care. You asked me what to do about

  425. this debt, what you are doing is wrong, it is not who a child of

  426. God should ever be. That's perfecting Holiness in

  427. the fear of God in a very small town in Missouri.

  428. My mama worked at a bank for many years and it was in the

  429. days when the tellers also posted to the statements.

  430. And so they got to know everybody in town and how they

  431. paid. Their bills.

  432. It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing.

  433. And so, mama would see somebody in town and she would say, they

  434. bounced checks all the time. She would say, all they look

  435. like they have a lot of money, but they really don't and they

  436. never lost in a while. She'd see somebody that was just

  437. plain nondescript and she said, you wouldn't believe how much

  438. money they have in the bank. You know, it just seemed like

  439. there were some folks that just insisted on making a show but

  440. they were doing so on the backs of the local business owners and

  441. when individuals incurred debts that they have no intention of

  442. paying that's what they're doing.

  443. They're saying this local business owner is going to

  444. advance me what I need to look good, God's people really cannot

  445. have anything to do with that. And so we do our best to pay our

  446. bills and we do so to pay them on time and if we cannot afford

  447. it then we don't get it now when young people I studied with

  448. with, for they get married, we go through a chapter on finances

  449. and the workbook that I use and one of the concepts is, well,

  450. I'm we're getting ready to buy such and such and we're going to

  451. get a loan for great. How much is it going to cost you

  452. every month so much money? Wonderful.

  453. Why don't you put that off for a few months and start saving that

  454. exact amount of money every month?

  455. And here's the test, if you can save that amount of money, every

  456. month, probably, you can afford the payment, but if you can't

  457. find it in your, in your means to save that amount of money

  458. every month, then, why would you want the debt?

  459. It just means you can't afford it at all, and so you shouldn't

  460. get whatever it is, but it's a birthday, but it's this boat,

  461. it's that. Yeah, make do Make do you know

  462. what I've seen through the years of buying an awful lot of

  463. presents for awful. Lot of people, I'll just use my

  464. grandkids. As an example, we will buy for

  465. them some enormously wonderful toy and the afternoon is spent

  466. playing with the box that it came in.

  467. Guess what the box cost. It cost nothing but that two or

  468. three hundred dollar toys sets over there on used and is gone

  469. at the first garage sale because they never played with it.

  470. It's real easy to get so caught up in buying things that we

  471. cannot afford that we end up robbing who now, when we get

  472. into Financial Straits, And we have all these debts to pay.

  473. Do we stop eating? No, we don't do that.

  474. That's have a place to live. Have to have a car to drive have

  475. to pay those credit card payments.

  476. Where do we cut? We cut the Lord's Church.

  477. We cut, we cut our ability to raise our contributions by the

  478. debt that we incur in increasing values.

  479. And so, in a lot of places are contributions have become

  480. stagnant as Brethren have filled their lives with credit card

  481. debt. That may easily take 20 to 50

  482. years to pay off. We need to pay our bills.

  483. We need to pay them on time and we need to not Rob God in We do

  484. that perfecting Holiness in the fear of God means, we will not

  485. steal from our employer from our neighbor, or from any business.

  486. Growing up on the farm. Our nearest neighbor was a

  487. quarter mile away. We came up, missing a Post Mall

  488. one time that he went to town to Second Street.

  489. To the second hand stores on Second Street, and started

  490. looking for and found his Post Mall.

  491. Our nearest neighbor quarter mile away was a wino and so he

  492. would steal anything from anybody when he needed to drink

  493. and so Daddy, got that 16 pound, pull small and he carried it up

  494. to the counter with one hand and he said to the fellow wagging it

  495. slightly, you should not have bought this from the fellow that

  496. you paid for it. I'm taking it home, it's mine.

  497. The fellow started to say that he said it is mine.

  498. And we walked out. That was interesting.

  499. Stealing from your neighbor, it's amazing.

  500. Some of you have just had some thievery going on in your

  501. neighborhoods, what a vile person would steal from his

  502. neighbor, a post mall or whatever.

  503. But you know, if we're not careful, we can steal from the

  504. people we work for and not even meaning to do it.

  505. Here's kind of the way that works.

  506. You know, if you're in a job where you are salaried, where

  507. you get your pay and you got jobs to do and however much

  508. time. It takes you to do those jobs,

  509. they're yours. To do so, you may work 80 hours

  510. in a week, you may work 30 hours in a week, but you've got those

  511. jobs to do and you get paid the same amount if you stop and

  512. visit for a little while, and you're paid like that, nobody

  513. cares. Because you're going to work,

  514. however, many hours are necessary to get the job done.

  515. But if you're working by the hour, That means somebody's

  516. paying you for your time to be productive for them.

  517. They're literally paying you to apply your energy to their work.

  518. And if we as God's people waste our time and don't apply our

  519. energy to their work. Then in essence, we're asking

  520. them to pay us when we haven't done anything in return.

  521. And I think that's a form of being dishonest, and I don't

  522. think that should be who we are now.

  523. Do our bosses want us to take breaks from our labors, of

  524. course, besides that, it's state law.

  525. But do they want us to waste hours upon end?

  526. Doing various things and they continue to pay us as though we

  527. had worked. No, they don't.

  528. And when it comes to being a good example, you know, who

  529. should be at the head of the pack God's people.

  530. We should always set a good example, for being willing to

  531. work, hard and work, consistently for the people who

  532. are blessing us by employing us and paying us perfecting

  533. holiness. In the fear of God means, we

  534. even watch those things many, many years ago, I was talking to

  535. the president of the company and I was just a teenager and he

  536. come out to the computer area where I was working and he said

  537. he wanted to visit for a while and so we did that.

  538. And finally I said, I better get back to work.

  539. And he looked at me and said, when you're talking to me, you

  540. are working like, oh, okay, I knew that was okay.

  541. Now, if your boss is going to come out and talk to you, it's

  542. all right. Have you talked to him?

  543. That's what they want. But we need to be very careful

  544. to be known as people who are honest as people who work hard

  545. and as people who keep their word, I get calls from

  546. supervisors about various employee situations.

  547. And they say, what are we going to do?

  548. If they complain to this or that agency?

  549. What are we going to do? And I always say, well, let's

  550. start with this, we're going to tell the truth.

  551. We are. Yeah, we are.

  552. We're gonna tell the truth but we did something wrong, okay?

  553. Then we'll say we did something wrong.

  554. Now, can we learn from this and never do it again?

  555. And the supervisors always say yeah we can okay then let's tell

  556. the truth. What's the cost of your honesty?

  557. I wants uncovered about a two hundred thousand dollar mistake

  558. in an insurance billing that would have given my company, an

  559. extra two hundred thousand dollars.

  560. So I call the insurance agent first and I said hey I owe you

  561. 200 thousand dollars, you didn't bill me for thank you very much

  562. for the call. I'll correct that bill and it'll

  563. be right out. Then I went in to my boss and

  564. said, the insurance company made a two hundred thousand dollar

  565. burst Take, who good? And then I just went ahead and

  566. said I already called them. Oh, oh two hundred thousand

  567. dollars, two dollars. Two sense.

  568. The amount should not make a difference.

  569. We want to tell the truth, even when the truth hurts examine

  570. yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.

  571. Second Corinthians 13, verse 5. What is it?

    2 Corinthians 13:5

  572. That Delights, our eyes. My grandkids.

  573. Love the ice cream, man. When that music starts.

  574. Oh they get excited. Their little eyes.

  575. Just light up ice cream man. Ice cream man, which means money

  576. now. Now, that's excitement.

  577. That's delight. And we understand that like

  578. Ezekiel, our spouse should Delight.

  579. Our eyes. I heard Benny tell this about

  580. his Edna's mother. She'd been ill for some time and

  581. didn't know any of the family anymore.

  582. One day, they showed her a picture of her husband, who'd

  583. been dead for years, she looked at that picture for a while.

  584. Then she said, my what a handsome man, Does your spouse

  585. Delights your eyes? Oh, I hope so.

  586. I hope your spouse Delights your eyes every day.

  587. You're blessed to be with them that you just can't wait to see

  588. them. And to be with them.

  589. That's the kind of relationship. Ezekiel had our children, should

  590. Delight our eyes. It's great to have kids.

  591. In fact, Psalms 127 verse 3 says, low children aren't

    Psalms 127:3

  592. Heritage of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his

  593. reward. It's great to have kids most of

  594. the time. It's wonderful to have

  595. grandkids. We should have those first, you

  596. know. Children should Delight our

  597. eyes. And we should walk them to

  598. Delight. God's eyes.

  599. I brothers and sisters had Christ.

  600. Should Delight our eyes after all first Peter 217 says love

  601. the Brotherhood you know you can just see that in a gospel

  602. meeting when Brethren come from other congregations.

  603. There's a lot of love in the Lord's church when we get to see

  604. one another, oh, what a wonderful thing it is to be able

  605. to see one another at times like this when we gather together.

  606. Either in our worship is correct, according to God's

  607. truths, that should Delight our eyes.

  608. And of course, when someone obeys the gospel, that should

  609. Delight our eyes. There are few things more fun

  610. than to baptize someone into Christ at all.

  611. What a great Delight that is all of these things and I'm sure

  612. there are so many more should Delight our eyes.

  613. What is it? That Delights, our eyes today.

  614. Have we been turning our eyes in the wrong direction.

  615. Then we need to look to those things that God can always

  616. bless. And let's use Ezekiel as an

  617. example, because he was not condemned for what delighted his

  618. eyes and that should be who we want to be.

  619. Well, that'd be hard for us. Yeah, it will be hard really

  620. hard for us at times for us to do what we should do job didn't

  621. have the best of relationships with his wife.

  622. Now, I'm concluding that buy some inferences that are in the

  623. Bible when he first went through his trials.

  624. She came out. And said, why don't you just

  625. Curse God and die. Now there's an encourager for

  626. you. There's a verse later on in the

  627. book where she came out and made some remark about his breath

  628. being foul. What a helper.

  629. What a helper. You know what job said, he said,

  630. I've made a covenant with my eyes.

  631. That I will not look lustfully on a maid.

  632. He said, I am committed to my spouse.

  633. And I'm not going to look places where I shouldn't look.

  634. Ezekiel was delighted with his wife and the Lord blessed him.

  635. Let's make sure at home and everywhere.

  636. The Lord can be delighted with those things that we occupy our

  637. attention with We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on

  638. by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

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